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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 26, 2013

CSS, Makoto Ozone and Shonen Knife get a round of shows in before New Year's

With the year winding down and the holiday season approaching, the concert scene in Japan gets pretty quiet. Although there will be a few international acts headed here in the middle of December, your best shot for a live performance might be checking out local acts before they go into hibernation for...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / TRAVEL INSIDER
Nov 26, 2013

Air France's new chef; SAS Narita lounges a plus; AirAsia to fly to Nagoya

Air France's new chef
Reference / Q&A
Nov 25, 2013

ADIZs common but China's is worrisome

China's announcement Saturday of its establishment of an air defense identification zone in the East China Sea that includes the Japan-controlled Senkaku islets has worsened already tense bilateral ties.
WORLD
Nov 25, 2013

Iran deal could complicate U.S. foreign policy efforts in Mideast

As it continues to juggle balls through seemingly never-ending foreign policy crises, the Obama administration finally has brought one safely to ground, at least temporarily.
BASKETBALL
Nov 24, 2013

Cinq Reves mix it up to beat Lakestars

Pawns and kings can both make key moves in chess. Similarly, centers and guards can be just as important for a basketball team.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 24, 2013

TV sports broadcasts as a language-learning tool

Another exciting grand sumo tournament ended yesterday, and brought back memories of my first encounter with sumo, in Okinawa back in September 1965.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Nov 24, 2013

Is the JLPT really worth it?

The final countdown to this Sunday's Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) has begun, but professionals say piling pressure on examinees might do more harm than good at this point.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 24, 2013

The immigration question

Despite Japan's low birthrate and rapidly graying population, only one in seven Japanese support the idea of increased immigration.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 24, 2013

Language-learning app mixes study and manga

For those who came to Japan for the anime but are stuck instead studying flash cards for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), an Osaka-based company has made it possible to kill two birds with one app.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2013

Why banks shouldn't be blamed for the recession

Banks didn't cause — and shouldn't be punished for — the recession.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Nov 24, 2013

'The Stranger': Nobel Prize-winning author Camus an outsider in France

It is a century since French Nobel Prize-winning author Albert Camus was born — and more than 50 years since he died in an accident on an icy road — yet the polemics over his legacy and "mysterious" death rumble on.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 23, 2013

Back to the future: Shinto's growing influence in politics

Immaculate and ramrod straight in a crisp, black suit, Japan's education minister, Hakubun Shimomura, speaks like a schoolteacher — slowly and deliberately.
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
Nov 23, 2013

Local government in action

Young man: Why are you cutting down the maple trees in various places around the park?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 23, 2013

Ozeki's work reflects her complex identity

Ruth Ozeki's recent novel, the 2013 Man Booker-shortlisted "A Tale For the Time Being," is best described as a hybrid: a fictional masterpiece with footnotes and appendices like a research paper; a colorful scrawl of inventive creativity marked by scientific asides ranging from ocean gyres to quantum...
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 23, 2013

ACLU seeks termination of NSA's call-records program

Civil liberties advocates on Friday asked a federal court in New York to end the National Security Agency counterterrorism program that collects data on billions of phone calls by Americans, arguing that it violates the Constitution and was not authorized by Congress.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 22, 2013

¥500: the most expensive coin in the world, kinda

I am fond of that big coin, for a bevy or reasons. It's a relationship I dub 'The king and I.'
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 22, 2013

Japan's foreign policy quirks

Japan's 'honne' and 'tatamae' approach to some foreign policy issues has had poor results.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 22, 2013

Sony's Hirai plans $250 million in entertainment cuts

Sony Corp. will cut $250 million in costs at its entertainment units over two years, part of Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai's plan to boost profit and keep full ownership of the movie, TV and music businesses.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2013

U.S. sailor's rape victim wins case

A woman raped by an American serviceman near the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 2002 wins a landmark judgment against her attacker.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2013

New Ai Weiwei film details the art of persecution

Timing, as they say, is everything, and for aspiring filmmaker Alison Klayman, that meant being in Beijing filming China's most well-known contemporary artist, Ai Weiwei, at precisely the moment the Chinese government decided to throw him in jail.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2013

Kennedy showed how U.S. can contain Iran threat

The Cold War crises that U.S. President John F. Kennedy faced hold important lessons for the nuclear impasse with Iran.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Nov 21, 2013

Demand booming for artisanal rice

Rice farmers in Japan are under siege. Heavily protected on various levels by the central government for decades, they've seen the market for their precious crop eroded by cheaper imported rice, and the administration of Shinzo Abe is proposing ending production-rationing and subsidies. It will be interesting...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 21, 2013

Snowmen settle in Osaka's Umeda district

Snowmen, and creating them, have to be among the greatest joys of winter days for both kids and adults, but it'll be a while longer before we are likely to see any in the city. Unless you are in Osaka. There, thousands of snowmen are about to pop up in 58 locations around the city.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Nov 21, 2013

Bless your shoes not your socks

Tamahime Inari Shrine in Taito Ward is hosting the 39th Kutsu no Megumi Matsuri (Shoe Blessing Festival) this weekend, for which local shoe makers will organize every shoe-related event imaginable, including memorial services for worn-out footwear and special bargain sales.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person